Improve your riding skills online!
 

This looks interesting:
"Certified On- and Off-road motorcycle Instructors will analyze your video so you can improve your skills. With state of the art video analysis tools we provide you with the best possible learning curve in remote video coaching. Your motorcycle training starts right now!"
Basically you video yourself doing various exercises - they supply the details - two minutes per exercise - upload it, and they send back an up to 8 minute video detailing all your flaws - in a very nice way I'm sure - and what to do about them! :)
At 38€ it seems worth a try. Top instructors in English and German.

https://www.video-riding-academy.com/


Who's going to be first to report in?

Is this the future of riding training - born out of CV-19 necessity? A genuine advance or make do and mend for the time being ?

When it comes to the question of training it's always seemed to be in the 'have you stopped beating your wife (or husband)' category for me. Do I need training? Well, yes, I suppose. I could always be better (at anything, not just riding) so training would probably help in some areas. But (thinks) really, do I need training? No, I seem to get by ok. 'So you think you know it all, eh. Well, lets get you out on the bike and we'll soon find your shortcomings'. I daresay you will but is what you find going to make much practical difference?

I've ridden (on the road) over the years with police instructors and the IAM (the same thing on some occasions) and had my shortcomings pointed out to me. I have a friend who's currently being 'trained' by a local IAM group and we've compared notes. We both feel / felt pushed out of our comfort zones with some (not all) of the 'improvements' they said were the approved way of doing things. So do you abandon an approach that's kept you safe for 50yrs because it's not 'optimal' (in their opinion). Do I upgrade my off road skills, and if so what does that get me - more actual skill or just more confidence. Am I more likely to come a cropper if I exceed my abilities (almost certainly I suspect). If I'm heading off on a long trip should I really be pushing my limits. If I'm riding well within them what's training going to add? And, cutting to the chase, how much improvement is a couple of short video sessions going to add? That's why I've not yet voted in the poll; I always seem to think the opposite of whatever each question is asking. doh

I used to do track days with my BMW M Roadster and one day I took up an offer from a group from Birmingham IAM who were there with a stand offering to assess people's driving. "I'm going to enjoy this", I thought, anticipating pats on the back. But boy, did I need improvement! So I set to having lessons each Sunday morning for the next few months.

Yes, in some ways the car IAM was a bit anal in approach and some things were drilled in without explanation or reasoning, such as the block gear change technique. When it came to take the test I had by then moved on to a Z4 with a clutchless sequential manual gearbox which forced through-the-gears changing (much to their chagrin) and obtained special dispensation from IAM HQ to drive it on the test with two feet, right for accelerator, left for brake.

When it came to the bikes, I would say I owe my life to a local police traffic inspector called Ken who patiently led me through IAM training week after week. Without Ken, by now I feel I would have had multiple serious accidents, or worse. Both tests made me a better and safer driver/rider, but also made driving/riding more enjoyable.

So IAM comes highly recommended from me. :thumbup1: :thumbup1:

And then on to offroad training. I've had a lot, both formal and informal. I still don't regard myself as a good offroader, things take longer to heal nowadays and I tend to be more cautious. But €38 is nothing in the grand scheme of things.

An alternative is the excellent series of offroad training videos produced (for free) by Brett Tkacs on his MotoTrek channel on Youtube, see https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWh...eOmEU065h-8kUw

Example video:

About 30 years ago now I signed up for IAM training and had a couple of observed runs which picked up and hopefully got rid of a few errors in my riding technique, but what ended it for me was when I asked about a particular way of doing something being told "because the book says so" which I found a totally unsatisfactory, in fact idiotic answer and I never went back.
I am sure I could not pass the advanced riding test but am fairly confident in the most important element of their training my defensive riding technique, having done over 20,000 miles on the Indian subcontinent and still being alive is testament to that.